Overpopulation, Industrialization, and the Degradation of the Environment

The world population of 7.2 billion in mid-2013 is projected to increase by almost one billion people within the next twelve years. It is projected to reach 8.1 billion in 2025, and to further increase to 9.6 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion by 2100. This assumes a decline of fertility for countries where large families are still prevalent as well as a slight increase of fertility in several countries with fewer than two children per woman on average.

People may believe that the most important environmental issues threatening our world would be human overpopulation, ocean acidification, and pollution. However we are forgetting how important every environmental issue is to our planet and the humans that populate it. Ozone depletion affects both the planet and the people. It is a very serious environmental issue that if not solved can cost us some serious loss. The depletion of our ozone layers and the creation of the ozone hole has occurred since the 1980’s, and it 's only getting worst. The ozone layer is a form of oxygen in the molecular form of O3. It is an unstable gas with a pungent odour, it is bluish and it is located in two parts of the atmosphere: the stratosphere and the

The transition from the traditional hunter gatherer societies, in to an agriculture based living system, has allowed humans to increase their population size, putting strains on the Earth’s environment. Agriculture has also brought along with it a decrease in women’s roles in the community, while also bringing about a class system where the wealthy rule, and were the weak and poor obey. As humans began to domesticate more plants and animals, they settled in permanent areas. The Change from hunter gatherer benefited few, but had dire consequences for the earth and groups with in it. One such consequence was the population increase, which has lead to major issues throughout history, and one that has ties to current global issues.

Dr. Forsyth implements plenty of evidence as well as proven statistics to back up his outlook on these issues. The growth of human population is happening at an exponential rate, implying that in a short period of time population growth will double. “We find it difficult to comprehend exponential growth, but it may prove to be our fatal blind spot” [3]. When analysing the world’s population over a long period of time, it took roughly 19,000 years for the world’s population to go from 5million people to 500 million people in 1500 A.D. [4] With an estimated population of 7.5 billion people [5], for a period less than 1000 years, population increased more than 1500 times its size than it was in the 1500’s. In addition, on a more minute scale of time, in 1950 the world’s population was roughly 2.5 billion people [6] in merely 50 years the world’s population has tripled. With these statics, it is evident that the world’s population is increasing at an incomprehensive rate. With populations at their peak, overconsumption is another problem this world faces, as Dr. Forsyth affirms “humans consume far more than their fair share of the Earth’s natural productivity.”[7] Due to this over consumption of resources, there is a vast demand for cheap food which results in the clear cutting of large forest to generate room for new plantations of food. When doing so, humans destroy habitats that

There are more than seven billion people on Earth now, and about one in eight of us don’t have enough food to eat. So, with a projected nine billion people by the year 2050, how many people can the Earth support while maintaining a healthy population? Population changes are due to the relationship between births and deaths. If the number of births equals the number of deaths then the world’s population will remain the same, but if births exceed deaths, population growth will occur. Early in history, population was slowly growing because of high death rates related to wars, famines, and poor medical services. With advances in

As the human race continues to grow older the population starts to grow. Population growth is a change in the size of a population over time, depending on the balance of births and deaths over a period of time. For the world, population grows when the amount of births exceeds the amount of deaths. As shown in figure 1, the world’s population grew very slowly until about 1750 that is when the population growth started to increase rapidly. Figure 2 shows the growth of the global population from 1950 onwards, it also shows the projected population growth up to 2050. The global population is estimated to rise to approximately 9 billion people by 2050.

Consider that Earth’s population is projected to rise to 10 billion by the year 2050. The current

Throughout the course of the industrial revolution, there was a major increase in steel and iron production. While this was great for the development of railroads, making goods cheaper in store but, it had some major negative effects on the environment. With the increase of supply and demand increased factories attempted to maximize the output of their factories by keeping them running as long as possible typically implementing a “sun up to sundown” work day. Factories even went has far as hiring children in order to maximize productivity.

Thomas Malthus argued in his Essay on the Principles of Population, that “the pressure of population on the means of subsistence acted like a noose that becomes tighter when population grew too fast and all attempts to redistribute wealth in a more egalitarian manner came to nought”. Malthus argued that “the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man”. It can be identified through the famines of the biological ancient regime that humanity was stuck in this trap, lacking resources for population growth. That being said, Marks states that the necessities of life and industries came from land and agriculture, yet argues that this biological ancient regime came to an end with the Industrial Revolution. I believe that it is due to the agricultural revolution that humanity was able to escape this regime, due to the massive output of food and resources

The Industrial Revolution caused a great change in history in both technology and science. With the increased mechanization of society and the increase in manufactured goods. We still see its effects today and you could argue that the Industrial Revolution is still going on with the rise of computer industry and the internet. We also are seeing the impact of the Industrial Revolution and how it has effected our environment and even how we conduct war.

“In Europe and Asia the typical family lived close to the breadline. Whether in 1500 or 1800, in France or in China, Most families either owned no land or such a small holding that it could barely feed them even in a prolific year.” (Blainey, 2001) This quote is the first piece of the text, and summarises the differences between then and now. Whilst billions of people still live below the breadline in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia, and Latin America (Shah, 2013), the spread of wealth has changed in a way that we are able to track the changes by consumption. The countries colonised by European countries that were noted by Blainey and Crone as having been struggling with food are, from the 1800’s onwards, generally some of the best fed people in the world

When I was in my Biological Evolution class, professor Dr. Matthew Terry started talking about how many people can Earth support. He said Earth population has grown dramatically over the past 15 years and it would continue to grow exponentially. For example, when I was born Earth population was of 3 billion people now we have 7 billion people. It got me thinking about why is our population growing significantly and how is this going to affect our habitat. Earth is now overpopulated and there 's have to be some measures. Would it be ethical if we try to control how many babies you can have or try to limit our population? How has technology influenced our population growth? What would be the consequences if Earth reaches its final capacity? How this is going to affect our environment and other species. These are just some of the burden questions I have for this topic.

Throughout history, the world’s population has expanded in an extremely exponential fashion-- taking over three million years to achieve a one billion person benchmark, it then only took 130, 30, 15, 12, and 11 years to reach subsequent billions, respectively. (Southwick, 159) Such a massive and still increasing population, combined with the environmentally detrimental repercussions of industrialization (as a result of the need to sustain such a large population), namely pollution from fossil fuels, has begun to take a serious toll on our planet’s ecosystem. Moreover, “some scientists have calculated that an optimal human population on earth in terms of reasonable

A huge forest with lots of trees is near. The gargantuan trees Stand tall and straight, like soldiers. But this lovely picture is just a memory. A huge fire (man-made of course) quickly spreads throughout the forest and even nearby areas, too. The smell of burning wood fills nearby areas. In the once strong forest is now factories and energy plants. The smog hovers over the land like clouds ready to storm. Cities are being built left and right, with no care for the environment. It’s new population causes noisy traffic. This is a burden to all nearby people. Overdevelopment is a huge problem that harms our environment. Many objectives and other urban plans support the clearing of land. Many harmful effects slowly kill off Earth. Solutions are much needed for this worldwide problem. But if the solutions are ignored, like they currently are, the world can change for the much worse. In 50 years from now, Earth would not be an enjoyable place. Grass nor plants would just be a memory. The only plants that exist would be electricity and water filter plants. The factories would be everywhere you look. Their smog would also take over. Smog would be the new “air” to humans around the world. In some cities that have met a polluted fate, stars are not visible any more. This might be the case for every place on Earth. It doesn't matter if you are in a small town, the only place on Earth now is cities. Traffic would be everywhere. Not one street is free from cars and trucks. The noise

It stands to reason that the planet we live on has a finite limit of resources: water, air, and land. More people mean more industry, which means an increase in the resources we consume and the more emissions we produce. There is also evidence to support theories regarding human contribution to global warming and climate change.